2001 Presidential address: Do more with more

As I have listened to, and recently re-read the addresses of our WSCA Presidents, I have been moved and challenged by their words and their wisdom. And their speeches are challenging. They have exhorted us to embrace quality discourse, to welcome change, to maintain the centrality of communication

Over this past year, I have thought about my life as a communication professor. How are my times similar and different from those who have come before me? I was born the year Disneyland opened. During my formative years, I watched movies and TV showing the life of the professor. This was a person, usually a man, who enjoyed great respect, worked in a large book-lined office with comfortable leather furniture, and lectured to enraptured students coming to class after the pep rally. Students lined up after class to gain just one more pearl of wisdom. These professors appeared to have ample time to think and write while smoking a pipe, and they left campus by 5:30 PM in a sporty English touring car, arriving to a spacious, comfortable home.